Report - Rebuttal - Arbitrate

Complaint Review:
Coast to Coast / Grand Getaways TRUSTED BUSINESS | Ripoff Report Verified™ …businesses you can trust. Coast to Coast / Grand Getaways where vacation dreams come true. Coast to Coast / Grand Getaways offer an impressive array of vacation opportunities for you and your family to explore. Coast to Coast / Grand Getaways members enjoy the services of a Travel Counselor, who will tend to your every vacation need.

Coast to Coast / Grand Getaways TRUSTED BUSINESS | Ripoff Report Verified™ …businesses you can trust. Coast to Coast / Grand Getaways where vacation dreams come true. Coast to Coast / Grand Getaways offer an impressive array of vacation opportunities for you and your family to explore. Coast to Coast / Grand Getaways members enjoy the services of a Travel Counselor, who will tend to your every vacation need.

Corporate Advocacy Program: The best way to manage and repair your business reputation. Hiding negative complaints is only a Band-Aid. Consumers want to see how businesses take care of business. All businesses will get complaints. How those businesses take care of those complaints is what separates good businesses from bad businesses.

Ripoff Report's discussions with Coast to Coast Grand Getaways have uncovered an ongoing dedication by the company to total client satisfaction. This means that clients can expect that the company will work towards finding a mutually satisfactory resolution to any concerns. Coast to Coast Grand Getaways listens carefully to client concerns and sees them as an opportunity to learn from past mistakes and become more efficient as a company in the services offered and the support for those services.

Coast to Coast Grand Getaways' VP of Operations, Brenda Cooley, has informed us that her personal philosophy is "Customers first. [continued below]....

Report Attachments:

....... Always." Mrs. Cooley feels it is critical to listen to members and respond promptly and properly. By always putting customers first, they have built a successful model for a service-oriented business.

One of the things Ripoff Report learned in the course of its review is that typical customer feedback reads, "Coast to Coast Grand Getaways truly communicates all aspects of the service in a timely and effective manner. We are very pleased with the responsiveness that the employees show us. They are serious about meeting commitments, and deliver on their promises."Ripoff Report Verified™ .. part of Ripoff Report Corporate Advocacy Business Remediation & Customer Satisfaction Program.A program that benefits the consumer, assures them of complete satisfaction and confidence when doing business with a member business..

The information provided in this report below is based on comments made by Brenda Cooley during an onsite inspection held by a third party verification company with no biases towards Coast to Coast / Grand Getaways

Coast To Coast Getaways is a travel club that allows it's members to experience the vacation of their dreams. Members of their program are granted access to a variety of vacations including resorts, condominiums, hotel discounts, and cruises.

Additionally, they provide a travel counselor who will help the client every step of the way. Brenda Cooley stated the following about Coast to Coast Getaways, "[our] basic business model is allowing our members to travel more frequently, [and to] see parts of the world that they never had a chance to see." Coast to Coast Getaways truly has their customer's best interest in mind, "we have a membership just for you, but we allow family members to travel as well so everyone gets to enjoy the benefits."

Ms. Cooley went on to state the following in regards to how her company acquires leads, "a lot of our members or customers are a byproduct of our business to business relationship. We work with companies who in turn market products in conjunction with their marketing efforts to certain bases of their customer base." Ms. Cooley further stated the following in regards to the products they offer, "our sales processes are limited to upgrading or offering existing customers new product sects or even renewing them for longer terms because we have fees, annual fees, that keep them in the program. We typically start with an email campaign to introduce the customer and then we will follow up with a phone call after a number of email campaigns have been initiated."

During the onsite inspection Ms. Cooley was asked to describe a situation where a client was not satisfied with the level of service or product they received. Ms. Cooley explained, "I think we have many situations where customers don’t read the terms and conditions of a particular product. If they hear 'companion airfare' they think they can go anywhere in the world, and clearly it states its domestic only...but customers don’t read that even though they have signed up and said they have read the terms and conditions." In order to remedy this Coast to Coast Getaways will educate and do as much as possible to satisfy the customers. This includes offering additional options to the consumer in order to handle their concerns in an efficient manner.

When asked to comment on the complaints posted on Ripoff Report's website Ms. Cooley stated, "from the Coast To Coast side of things every customer will have a price match guarantee. We will meet or beat apples to apples any comparison on any travel. So if anyone is going to forge a complaint 'I can get this service or travel cheaper' that’s not a true statement...we like to believe based on our net worth agreements in place that we will always meet or beat 99.9% what they see out on the web and we usually can so that is the safeguard that is in place for our consumer if they have that issue. All the years that we have been in business the times we have had to use that price match have been so minimal because our agents do such a good job before we quote one of our customers. Can we search the whole world no but we do a good job searching before we offer our pricing." In order to assure future and current clients Ms. Cooley informed us that Coast To Coast Getaways has a professional relationship with CLEA and ARTA travel agency. She went on to state, "we use Chicago Title they have been around over 100 years they hold the money until a particular time so if there is ever an issue we can provide an immediate refund no questions asked. We pioneered escrow over 10 years ago. This gives customer reassurance. It make the whole process a lot smoother."

Coast To Coast Getaways is proud to be a part of Ripoff Report's Corporate Advocacy Business Remediation and Customer Satisfaction Program, "we are very much a customer driven business. We are all about customer satisfaction if it entails giving the customer back their money or going the extra mile with some additional servicing options.

" Coast to Coast Grand Getaways is a member service-oriented company where a commitment to "Customers first... Always" has been our philosophy from day one. We will always do anything within our power to accommodate member travel requests and ensure that members have exceptional vacation experiences. We appreciate any opportunity to work with you and resolve all matters to your satisfaction.
~ Brenda Cooley, VP of Operations

Coast to Coast Grand Getaways's team of travel professionals has expressed that they feel confident in their ability to provide the highest-quality customer service. Coast to Coast Grand Getaways takes employee satisfaction seriously as well. Employee feedback and surveys reveal comments such as this, "Coast to Coast Grand Getaways provides a positive, family-oriented work environment where employees are inspired to excel and given the opportunity to put their talents to work for the benefit of both the company and its customers."

Ripoff Report was pleased to learn that Coast to Coast Grand Getaways's past and current approach to business is focused on its pledge to total commitment towards client and employee satisfaction.

STATED IMPROVEMENTS FROM COAST TO COAST / GRAND GETAWAYS

Coast to Coast Grand Getaways recognizes that complaints posted on Ripoff Report (whether true or not) are issues that need to be addressed, not ignored. If handled correctly, complaints can be valuable learning opportunities. With the feedback generated by Ripoff Report's review, Coast to Coast Grand Getaways has made organizational changes allowing its clients and employees a more streamlined approach to problem resolution and a commitment to a great client experience.

In summary, after our review, which included discussions with Brenda Cooley, Ripoff Report is convinced that Coast to Coast Grand Getaways is committed to quality delivery of services resulting in total client satisfaction.

How does a business get Ripoff Report Verified™

The member business allows Ripoff report to email everyone from the past. Those who respond to Ripoff report with a valid complaint must be take care of.. they have made a commitment that if anyone contacts Ripoff Report in the future, they will make things right within 14 days. The member business must err on the side of their customers. Otherwise the member business is off the program.

Ripoff Report has determined that Coast to Coast / Grand Getaways meets Ripoff Report Verified™ standards which include a commitment to make a good faith effort to resolve any consumer complaints. Members of the Corporate Advocacy Business Remediation and Customer Satisfaction program do pay a fee for our on-site review, 24 hour monitoring and for support with customers to resolve any disagreements.

Ripoff Report sends a 3rd party service to do an onsite inspection of the new member business. The on-site inspection / review does not mean that the products or services offered by the business have been evaluated or endorsed by Ripoff Report, and has not made a determination as to the business' product quality or competency in performing services. We can verify, that Ripoff Report went to the business, verified their business or “work from home business”, there for, if a customer in the future does not get treated correctly, Ripoff Report can get the problem resolved. If not, and the customers is right, the member business will be taken off the Corporate Advocacy Program. Remember, Ripoff Report emailed every customer from the past that filed a complaint to make sure the member business made things right with customers from the past. Again, to err on the side of their customer, those from the past and those in the future.

As a matter of policy, when a business becomes a member of the Corporate Advocacy Program they agree to allow Ripoff Report to contact every client who filed a complaint so they can make things right with them. In order to confirm that the complaints were resolved, Ripoff Report is copied on all responses so we can insure that the member business did right by their customer.

Leisure Time LLC, affiliated with Grand Getaways Vacation and Travel Club out of Tampa, Orlando, and Sarasota FL respectively, appear to be a RIPOFF travel fraud/scam. My first alert was when my credit card company refused to honor my request to "buy-in" to the travel club as it was "red-flagged" for being an "internet gambling site" and for having an overseas bank. (I learned this after the fact upon returning home from Tampa).

So we "joined" and put over $2000 on my friend's debit card. We, under law, rescinded within the three day time period, and spoke with the alleged owner, Stanley Britt, of Orlando, FL, (407-832-2207)when we returned to Tampa to return their "membership kit" (i.e., worthless book of pseudo info). They refused to take it back or refund our money from the thousands that they had unless we paid them another $374 for "administrative fee and cost of book--$99 and $275 respectively). They have no "operating headquarters" in Orlando as stated in the contract as to where to rescind. There was no fax or phone number listed as well.

Some of the "operators" in Tampa include Ann Gorman, alleged "project director" who became verbally abusive, agitated, and extremely unprofessional when kindly confronted with our request to return book and receive refund. Scott Morse, John Britt (son of owner) and Jason Fuller are also principals in the Tampa office located at 324 N. Dale Mabry, Tampa, FL.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of people put their name in the box to be considered for a "free trip to Hawaii". I'm sure we all were called as "winners" to set us up for a bigger scam. Their "free vacations"--offered thru MVI out of Sarasota, FL--were neither "free" (had to put down an additional $99-190 plus other fees--taxes, admin. fee, port charges, etc.) nor was "Hawaii" ever offered as an option!

I do believe the Florida Attorney General needs to get involved as well as Florida Consumer Protection, BBB needs to update their reports (no complaints listed under their other pseudo name "One Nation Travel"), and possibly the FTC, local media, and ultimately a class action suit if these people continue their questionable "business" (and I use the term loosely) practice.

Your site has been very helpful to alerting us to "businesses" such as this one. From this point on, we will check your site first for any consumer complaints. As the complaints regarding this company continue to roll in (and I'm sure they will), I, for one, am committed to bringing these people responsible to justice.

Corporate Advocacy Program: The best way to manage and repair your business reputation. Hiding negative complaints is only a Band-Aid. Consumers want to see how businesses take care of business. All businesses will get complaints. How those businesses take care of those complaints is what separates good businesses from bad businesses.

AUTHOR: Scott - (U.S.A.)

This is in response to the fraudulent posting on you're website: Ripoffreport.com. We became aware of a posting by Ms. Trudy Yukl within the past week, and respond to her accusations with the facts.

Ms. Yukl became a member of our travel club on October 29, 2004. At that time, we explained to her that our company policy when someone becomes a member, as clearly indicated in our contract, is that if for any reason a customer wishes to rescind, their membership, they must do so within seventy two (72) hours from the date of the contract. On November 4, 2004, three (3) days past the company's recission period, Ms. Yukl arrived at the companies Tampa office and demanded a full refund. However, we explained that under the terms and conditions under the contract, there is a $99.00 administration fee on all cancellations, and that the remaining balance would be refunded within twenty one (21) days from the date of cancellation. Moreover, we also explained to Ms. Yukl that the membership kit that is provided at the time of purchase must be returned in its original condition or the customer is charged $275.00. However, Ms. Yukl's membership kit was severely damaged, and therefore, the company would have to charge her the additional $275.00. At that point, Ms. Yukl became nasty and belligerent with Anne Gorman, our company project director, and Scott Morse, the member services manager. After attempting unsuccessfully to explain the companies return policy, we contacted the president, Stanley Britt. Mr. Britt, in an attempt to honor the company's policy of full customer satisfaction, offered to provide Ms. Yukl a full refund to charge her card, less the amount due for the membership kit. Although not happy, Ms. Yukl agreed to those terms, and went outside to smoke a cigarette while the paperwork was being prepared. After waiting for Ms. Yukl for 30 minutes, we realized she had left.

Leisure Time has strict policies for maintaining customer satisfaction. This type of slanderous posting is detrimental to the reputation for honesty and integrity that our company has earned within the community, and in the industry. The public cannot be permitted to be misled by one individuals false claims and unsubstantiated accusations. For example, contrary to her allegations, Leisure Time is not related in any manner with "One Nation Travel," and is not an internet gambling site. The company has an office in Orlando as stated in the contract executed and delivered by Ms. Yukl to Leisure Time. Ms. Yukl was offered and did receive a three (3) day Caribbean Cruise. She was never offered a trip to Hawaii.

We trust that you, the reader, will choose to make an informed, independent decision based on the objective facts, and not on the false claims of a customer whose motives, intent and behavior are less than honorable.

Corporate Advocacy Program: The best way to manage and repair your business reputation. Hiding negative complaints is only a Band-Aid. Consumers want to see how businesses take care of business. All businesses will get complaints. How those businesses take care of those complaints is what separates good businesses from bad businesses.